The devices, systems, and methods disclosed herein relate generally to surgical utility connectors, and more particularly, to surgical utility connectors configured to connect a surgical utility supplying device to a surgical implement.
Surgical implements, such as surgical imaging probes, surgical drills, surgical vitrectomy probes, and the like, are connected to a surgical utility supplying device to receive utility, such as laser imaging light, compressed air, or the like. The surgical implements are connected to the surgical utility supplying device via surgical utility connectors.
To prevent the mis-supply of utility, the surgical utility supplying device may determine whether a surgical implement is properly connected to the surgical utility supplying device before supplying the utility to the surgical implement. The surgical utility supplying device may detect the presence of a portion of the surgical utility connector to determine whether the surgical implement is properly connected. According to a first technique, some conventional systems use an internal optical sensor to detect the presence of the surgical utility connector. For example, when a portion of the surgical utility connector is inserted into the surgical utility supplying device, the portion of the surgical utility connector may block a light beam of the internal optical sensor to indicate that the surgical utility connector is connected. Nevertheless, some surgical utility connectors, such as pneumatic surgical implements, do not have portions that are inserted into the surgical utility supplying device. Thus, optical sensing of the connectors may not work for this type of surgical utility connectors.
According to a second technique, some conventional systems detect the surgical utility connector using Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags. An RFID scanner/detector may be installed in the surgical utility supplying device to detect an RFID tag embedded in the surgical utility connector. Nevertheless, in the RFID detection technique, the RFID scanner/detector may be required to continuously poll the RFID tag embedded in the surgical utility connector to monitor continuous connection. Further, if the surgical utility connector is disconnected from the surgical utility supplying device, the RFID scanner/detector may not detect the disconnection until the next polling cycle, which can delay the shut off of the utility to prevent hazard.
The present disclosure is directed to devices, systems, and methods that address one or more of the disadvantages of the prior art.